Vancouver's Leader in Transition toward Strong, Resilient, Complete Communities
Urban Farming Census
Mark Schutzbank from UBC writes to the Urban Farmer's Listserv in March 2011 about the idea of a City "Farming" Census. He needs YOUR ideas. Add your ideas as a comment to this page and/or send them to him at his email. We must raise the profile of urban agriculture in this City, Province, country, and the world. Vancouver can do this, and it's not too late to embrace food security!
From Mark's letter:
I hope that you are all doing well as spring comes, the ground thaws, and farming begins in earnest. In case we haven't met, my name is Marc Schutzbank. I'm a new master's student at UBC, in the Faculty of Food and Land Systems as well as a part of a new urban farm on the North Shore at Loutet Park. I became involved with this census project because I am interested in helping understand Vancouver's Urban Farming "Sector" and showing farmers, officials and customers, the potential for this work.
I believe that connecting with our food is essential to our planet, our health, and our taste buds. At the same time, its essential to show that urban farming is economically, socially, and environmentally productive. Proving our economic mettle is essential to long term farming. Showing our social impacts can help support larger grant programs at the city and regional level. The ecological services of our farms can be exciting discussions for education, climate change policy, and a way to promote urban farms, both educationally and financially.
An urban farming census can help provide the data to show what is going on in our farms and get the ball rolling on city and regional discussions on urban farming. Demonstrating what we do is essential to changing city policies and also promoting urban farming to more farmers and customers interested in enjoying the 'fruit of our labour' for dinner - literally.
I envision this census as an interview process, where we can discuss operations, costs and revenues, social connections, and environmental impacts. I think that working together to gather this information will help get the most accurate data. Furthermore, working together can be a great way to develop a familiarity with collecting and discussing this information for subsequent censuses. As with every census, your information will be stripped from any personal identifiers. Furthermore, you'll be able to review the data that I collect.
I'm currently working with a number of you to better understand some of the things that you'd be most interested in learning, and I'd love to hear more of your ideas. Just below I've put together a list of seven areas that I think are especially important to focus on. After you have a chance to read these. I have two primary questions:
1. What are some questions that you think are important to ask in an urban farming census?
2. What do you think about these categories of questions.
Here are the sections:
1. Business Models - What are the revenue streams and corresponding costs?
2. Social Impacts - How does our work support communities? Are volunteers involved?
3. Environmental Impacts - What are our ecological practices? How do we grow our food?
4. Yields - What do we plant, and what do we harvest?
5. Animals - What animal products do we grow and sell?
6. Value Added Products - What processed foods do we make and sell?
7. Economic Roles - How does Urban Farming fit in with other household occupations?
I aim to build this survey within in the next month and to then work with you to conduct interviews. In this way we can discuss your urban farming practice and capture your organization in the most complete way.
This is something that I am passionate about and am eager to enact. I wanted to email you to let you know what I am doing and to solicit your input. I think it's essential to move forward together. After you've had a chance to read these, please feel free to email me at marc.schutzbank@gmail.com or call me at 604.306.2719.
We can set up a time to grab coffee and spend some time weeding! This is a great way to show Vancouver who we are and what we do. I look forward to working with you!
Cheers,
Marc
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Marc Schutzbank
University of British Columbia
Integrated Studies of Food and Land Sciences
(604) 306-2719
marc.schutzbank@gmail.com
© 2012 Created by Randy Chatterjee.
